Originally Posted by
DarkLink
Don't take advice from Man vs. Wild. Bear Grills is an adrenaline junkie, he finds waterfalls to jump off of and then does it for fun. It's entertaining to watch, but it's a horrible idea in an actual survival situation. I actually have a lot of respect for Bear Grills, and he's done a lot of crazy stuff like climbing Mt Everest at a very young age, but the show itself isn't always the best advice. In fact, Bear usually says something like "ok, it'd be totally crazy for me to try and free climb down this cliff, so I'm gonna go for it". He is very knowledgeable, but his show is for entertainment first and foremost.
Les Straud knows what he's talking about. He gives extremely good advice for surviving an a wide variety of situations.
Incidentally, just for reference, I'm an Eagle scout, I've been backpacking in the Sierra Nevadas since I was like 8, and I've been a member of Search and Rescue for about 5 years now, with some years off when I was away at college. So it was really cool watching the Survivorman episode set in Yosemite, since I've been to the top of Half Dome twice and spent a lot of time in that environment.